The challenge at Document Life Workshop this week is to document your favorite place. I’m really a sappy “Home is Wherever I’m With You” person, but I’ve documented that. What I haven’t really documented is my favorite place on the map, and that just happens to be the city I call home. I was super inspired by one of the photos Jake took on a nighttime photo stroll last week (he’ll share more about that later), so I used it to create an 8×10 reverse hybrid layout about my love of Kansas City.

The journaling reads:

“I love this city. I love that Jake captured the magic of the skyline lights at night. I love taking long walks downtown, feeling dwarfed by buildings that really do seem to touch the clouds. I love that driving up on the skyline still takes my breath away. I love that KC’s commitment to supporting the arts equals unique marvels at every turn. I love that I’m a tourist in my own city, that there’s always something new. I love the city culture mixed with the Midwest mannerisms. Most of all, I love that I get to call this place home.”

Now for a bit about how this layout came together. I’m calling it “reverse hybrid” because usually hybrid layouts come together digitally, are printed, and then physical products are added on. I love this photo, and I want it to be printed at high quality, which can be kind of pricey. I knew I wanted my elements directly on the photo, but because large format printing is relativity expensive, I didn’t want to chance screwing up the photo. But I did want to use some of the physical elements on my desk. So I converted a few physical products digital!

On white cardstock, I drew out the words “my home”, stamped a house image with a Home Stamp by Elise Joy, and set down a geo locator symbol from the Studio Calico Wood Snippets Veneer Punctuation set. (Does anyone know what that symbol is called?). I took a photo of each of these elements with my iPhone, e-mailed them to myself, and turned them into digital elements for my page in photoshop. It’s a pretty rad technique. I did it for the Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock printable too. I’ll do an official tutorial if I can figure out our screen casting software.

I also altered an element from one of my favorite digital products, Grid Labels by Cathy Zielske, to fit the color scheme. That’s one thing I love about digital: it’s so easy to make things work for you.